Gods and Demons
by hunter 139
Summary: Ancient species from 7 universes converse about a common problem. Epilogue to my first short story, "The Mantle," read that first. Crossover between Halo, Metroid, Mass Effect, Dead Space and more. Rated T


**This is the Epilogue to my previous story, which focuses on who the Overseer's backers were and what their plan is. I do not own Star Wars, Halo, Mass Effect, Metroid, or Dead Space.**

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In a concealed base, hidden from the ecumene and the Flood alike, a cabal of Forerunners stood around a holoprojector as the video from the station played in a holographic sphere. This was worse than they had feared; this galaxy-sized Gravemind was the source of the problems that had plagued them and their allies, who were watching the same video at that moment.

When the recording ended, the sphere they were standing around split into 6, showing representatives of 6 species from different universes. These individuals were part of small factions that had realized that some of their problems were being caused by something outside their universes.

"I assume the transport device was destroyed with the station."

This came rumbling from the sphere containing the form of something resembling a Reaper cuttlefish. This individual refused to give its name or the name of it's species, so the rest had taken to calling it a Leviathan.

"Yes, the Gravemind has no way of reverse-engineering it and finding a way to send Flood forms to any other universes," One of the Forerunners said, before glancing to another sphere containing one of the bird-like Chozo, "At least for now."

Gifted with precognition, these Chozo had foreseen that the Flood would gain the ability to travel into other universes in the future, apparently caused by future civilizations stumbling onto the Flood while exploring the multiverse.

After learning of this development, these Chozo were currently in a partial trance as they used their precognition to peer into the future. At last one of them spoke.

"Millennia from this point, a being born from humanity will gain the powers of god, beyond the Gravemind or anything else that came before or after this person. The power to destroy and create reality at will. He will not wish to do so and he will struggle to control his powers, but he would be willing to fight the Flood." The Chozo opened their eyes as they acknowledged their allies before him. "We must create devices that will help him focus that power on the Flood and their Precursor artifacts. Then the multiverse shall be free from the corruption of the Flood."

Though the Forerunners and Leviathans were loathe to follow the will of something they couldn't detect with their own science, the Chozo had proven themselves to be right many times. Eventually, the ancients had agreed that it be so. They started building the artifacts in secret, while leaving hidden messages about their purpose and what the Flood had done to other universes, in the hope that the Flood and the Gravemind would eventually be destroyed, or at the very least rendered harmless forever. Eventually the prophecy came to pass, but that victory would not destroy the Gravemind...

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It had foreseen the same prophecy the Chozo had and while the Gravemind did not believe that this human would be able to destroy all that the Precursors had created, it knew better than to leave things to chance.

After all, it was prepared to consume all life in all realities.

For reasons that not even the Gravemind could understand, no matter how many interdimensional rifts it created, nor the method of creation, the Flood could not physically transfer through and reach other realities. However it could guess the source of this: other Precursors, who had previously travelled beyond their own universe into others. They must have found some way to prevent the Flood from directly piercing the boundaries beyond their home universe, likely at the cost of their own lives. Slightly amused and annoyed, the Gravemind nevertheless chose to wait until the another civilization had perfected the process outside of Precursor manipulations, since it had all the time in the multiverse. That did not mean it was inactive or incapable of causing damage to anyone else, it just meant the damage and manipulation had to be indirect, using a method the Forerunners had called the logic plague, spread by a more 'spiritual' form of communication.

It had convinced the Catalyst to create the Reapers, and while doing so, created a subroutine that caused the Reapers to replicate. This eventually led to the creation of a second armada of Reapers, one that would remain dormant until called upon.

In the universe of the Force, the Gravemind also convinced the servant of the Ones to drink from the Font of Power and bathe in the Pool of Knowledge, creating the dark being known as Abeloth. It also reached into the droid minds of the Abominor and the Silentium and caused them to go to war, thus causing the Yuuzhan Vong to develop their pathological xenophobia and hatred of technology.

Through great difficulty, the Gravemind was able to manipulate reality enough to store a large supply of the substance that would eventually be known as Phazon, into a pocket dimension, (annoyingly, it still could not send the Flood through to the universe of the Chozo) then sent its consciousness to a planet later called SR388 and drove the species known as the X parasites to be much more aggressive and violent.

After this latest prophecy, the Gravemind's essence entered yet another universe, convincing another species to craft a device that would contain enough genetic code from the Flood that would allow the mind of the Flood to transfer into it, but not too much, so it would survive any extinction attempt of the Flood. These devices, which became known as Markers, were given the ability to spread themselves and then evolve and absorb any and all sentient life they came across, creating a race known as the Necromorphs and the Brethren Moons.

Finally, the Gravemind had prepared a small time capsule that would be launched forward through time, escaping any extinction attempts. This device contained Flood spores that would be reconstituted years after the Flood's destruction, and would continue to cause strife for decades to come.

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**Well, what did you think? I got the idea a while back for this Galactic Gravemind (anyone got a better name for that? Please, I'd like to know.), and the information from the Forerunner Saga made the idea seem much more plausible. **

**I also had the idea that the Flood was responsible for a lot of the problems in the multiverse, to cement it as the main threat to everyone.**

**So, basically the Flood is responsible for the Reapers, the Necromorphs, Abeloth, the Yuuzhan Vong and the later date reconstitution of Dark Samus (hence it's collection of Phazon) and much more. **

**Please review, and I apologize if it seems all over the place. My brain is a mess.**


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